Official Site of Asia and Oceania Thyroid Association : Newly launched at 2016
The 16th International Thyroid Congress will be held in Xi’an, China, on September 8-13, 2020 with the Chinese Society of Endocrinology composing the Local Organizing Committee. This was officially announced at the Closing Session of the 15th ITC held at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, USA. An audio-visual presentation for the 16th ITC was shown followed by the invitation speech by Weiping Teng, AOTA Vice President and Chair of the LOC.
The 13th Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA) Congress was recently held in International Convention Center, Sydney, Australia, in August 18-21, 2019.
The congress was held in conjunction with Endocrine Society of Australia (ESA) and Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB) annual meeting, chaired by Prof. Duncan Topliss from Australia.
The number of registered participants in Sydney AOTA 2019 was 91 from AOTA’s member countries, and total of 125 abstracts were submitted from Australia(18), Korea(57), Japan(11), China(9), Taiwan(7), Indonesia(6), India(3), Thailand (3), Singapore(3), Italy (3), Unites States (2), Bangladesh(1), Iran(1), and Pakistan (1).
Members of local organizing committee were Duncan Topliss (AOTA LOC Chair) (Alfred Health), Elizabeth Chua (AOTA LOC) (University of Sydney), Diana Learoyd (AOTA/ESA LOC) (University of Sydney) and Donald McLeod (AOTA LOC) (QIMR Berghofer). Members of program organizing committee were Roderick Clifton-Bligh (Chair) (University of Sydney), Sun Wook Kim (Sungkyunkwam University, Korea), Iwao Sugitani (Nippon Medical School, Japan) and Paul M Yen (Duke NUS Medical School, Singapore).
The congress started on August 18th with preconference activities including Thyroid Ultrasound Workshop. In opening session, Prof. Jae Hoon Chung from Korea delivered a plenary lecture with the title of ‘TERT promoter mutation and its clinical implication in thyroid cancer’. In the opening session, we had a special time for Awarding Professor Creswell Eastman, Australia, the inaugural “Distinguished Service Award of the AOTA” in acknowledgement of his distinguished contributions to clinical and laboratory thyroidology, his work to establish and support AOTA, his regional and international work in the epidemiology and eradication of iodine deficiency disease (IDD), and his mentoring of colleagues to develop and contribute to clinical thyroidology in our region. His lifetime contributions were narrated by Dr. Teofilo San Luis Jr. and plaque and prize money were awarded to Prof. Eastman by President of AOTA, Professor Takashi Akamizu.
Scientific program was consisted of 2 plenary lectures, 2 invited lectures, 4 symposium sessions (12 topics), 3 meet-the-professor sessions, 6 oral sessions (48 papers) and poster sessions (77 papers). Among them, 11 young investigators were awarded travel grant for distinguished abstract (Pantea Nazeri from Iran, Sayaka Yamada, Takashi Okamura from Japan, Chih Chen Wang, Yen-Hsiang Chang from Taiwan, Eyun Song, Choonyoung Kim, Sae Rom Chung, Jonghwa Ahn, Kwangsoon Kim, Hana Kim from Korea) and the award budget were provided by AOTA.
On Aug, 21st, a second plenary lecture was delivered by Prof. Yuji Nagayama from Japan with a title of ‘Animal models of thyroid diseases’. AOTA Nagataki-Fujifilm prize of year 2017 awardee was Prof. Weiping Teng from China, and he delivered a prize lecture titled ‘Increasing TSH Levels in China’. Nagataki-Fujifilm prize of year 2019 was awarded to Prof. Won Bae Kim from Korea, and he gave us a prize lecture titled ‘Unmet Clinical Needs in Thyroid Cancer’.
The 13th AOTA congress was closed with promise that we would meet again in the 16th International Thyroid Congress, September 8-13, 2020 in Xi’an, China ( www.itc2020.org ) at Qujiang International Conference and Exhibition Center.
Prof. Jen-Der Lin, the Past President of The Endocrine Society of ROC and a longtime member of the AOTA, died Sep, 4th, 2019, at age 66.
As members of the Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA), we express our sincere condolences to the family of Professor Jen-Der Lin who would have been bewildered by a loss of a beloved scholar.
He was one of outstanding scholars who performed excellent studies on thyroid cancer during his lifetime and served AOTA as a council member representing Taiwan from 2010 to 2015.
His warm heart and scientific brilliance have deeply touched his patients and his colleagues and friends in our region.
May he rest in peace while his spirit for patients’ care and teaching lives on.
Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association
A note from Ashok Bhaseen, President of Thyroid Federation International
“There are still many people living with some kind of thyroid disorder without diagnosis. The International Thyroid Awareness Week is now in its 11th year, and I promise, we at Thyroid Federation International and its member countries won’t rest until testing and diagnosis rates improve globally. This year we’re helping people to recognize the many faces of thyroid disorders so they can visit a healthcare professional and get tested as soon as possible.“
Look for patient programs on education and awareness in your country or visit the Thyroid Federation website in your country.
How to get involved in this year’s campaign
If you’re on social media, keep up with the campaign via our channels on Twitter and Facebook, and play your part in the global movement by using the hashtag #ITAW19. This will help us raise awareness of thyroid disorders, which affect more than 200 million people worldwide as per ATA (American Thyroid Association).
Visit us on www.thyroidweek.org and www.thyroid-fed.org
Why are we doing this?
ITAW, now in its 11th year, was created to highlight the detrimental impact that thyroid disorders have on people’s quality of life when left undiagnosed. Around 1.6 billion people worldwide are thought to be at risk, with hundreds of millions living with a thyroid condition right now.[i] Up to 60% of those living with a thyroid disorder are undiagnosed, and people may be needlessly struggling through their everyday lives without knowing the root cause of their symptoms.[ii]
However, once
diagnosed, thyroid disorders are treatable, and the ITAW campaign is pushing
hard to improve testing and diagnoses globally.
i Khan A, Khan MM, Akhtar S. Thyroid disorders, etiology and prevalence. J Med Sci 2002; 2: 89–94. Available at: http://www.scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jms.2002.89.94&org=11 Last accessed February 2019.
ii American Thyroid Association. General Information/Press Room. Available at: https://www.thyroid.org/media-main/press-room/ Last accessed February 2019.
in Conjunction with the 2019 Annual Scientific Meetings of The Endocrine Society of Autralia and the Society for Reproductive Biology
The 12th Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association (AOTA) Congress held in Lotte Hotel Busan, Korea, during March 16-19, 2017 has been recently concluded with great success.
The congress was held in conjunction with Korea Thyroid Association (KTA) annual meeting and was co-chaired by Prof. Won Bae Kim and Prof. In Joo Kim. Since Korea had held the 4th AOTA congress chaired by Prof. Munho Lee, in Seoul, in 1989, it was the second time for Korea to host the AOTA congress.
The number of registered participants and accompanying persons in Busan AOTA 2017 was 592 from 25 countries represented (as of Mar 19). Participants were not only from AOTA member countries (Korea(324), Japan(61), Indonesia(61), Philippines(32), Taiwan(25), China(20), India(15), Australia(10), Singapore(8), Bangladesh(2), Iran(1)), but also from non-member countries (Malaysia(7), Thailand(5), Myanmar(3), Unites States(3), Canada(2), Germany(2), Morocco(2), Turkey(1), Oman(1), Saudi Arabia(1), Hong Kong(1), Russia(1), Netherland(1), Italy(1), and Kazahkstan(1)).
The congress started on March 16th with preconference activities including Thyroid Ultrasound Course and Joint Symposium by Working Group of Asian Thyroid FNA Cytology. In opening session, Prof. Duncan Topliss from Australia delivered an opening lecture with the title of ‘Recent Advances in Thyroid Diseases’ and a Memorial Lecture for passed Professor Emeritus Dr. Shigenobu Nagataki was dedicated by Prof. Shunich Yamashita from Nagasaki, Japan.
Scientific program were consisted of plenary lecture, 2 special lectures, 11 symposium sessions, 10 meet-the-professor sessions, 12 oral sessions and so on, which is the most voluminous program ever in the AOTA congresses. Totally 319 abstracts were submitted for scientific sessions, and 8 papers were awarded as distinguished abstracts (Prakash Gangadaran from Bangladesh, Hidefumi Inaba, Shinichi Suzuki and Yasuyo Nakajima from Japan, Soo Yeon Hahn and Eun Ju Ha from Korea, Sukriti Kumar from India and Xiaoxiao Cao from China).
AOTA prize of year 2017 awardee was Prof. Weiping Teng from China, but AOTA prize lecture was cancelled due to absence of awardee. LOC supported 29 registrants with travel grants (500 USD for each) based on country of presenter (low –middle income countries by World Bank) and quality of abstract.
The congress was a great success not only in the number of participants but in quality of scientific sessions. The congress was closed, pledging to meet again in the next AOTA congress which will be held in Sydney, Australia in 2019.
The address of formal homepage of AOTA was changed to “http://aota.kr”.
Please notice that previous homepage (www.aothyroid.org) is not an active site operated by AOTA, any more
Dear Members of AOTA:
Unfortunately we have very sad news to give you.
Emeritus Professor Shigenobu Nagataki (1932 ~ 2016) passed away on November 12th, 2016.
As one of founders of Asia & Oceania Thyroid Association, he had been actively involved not only in AOTA meetings but also in several ITC meetings. He had been a leader in the field of thyroidology not only in Japan, but also in whole Asian region.
He had been a member American Endocrine Society (emeritus), American Thyroid Association (honorary), American Diabetes Association, American Society Nuclear Medicine, Asia and Oceania Thyroid Association (president since 1985, honorary president since 2000), European Thyroid Association, European Association Study Diabetes, European Association Nuclear Medicine, Japanese Society Internal Medicine (honorary), Japanese Society Endocrinology (honorary), Japanese Society Thyroidology (honorary), Japanese Society Diabetes (honorary), Japanese Society Nuclear Medicine (honorary), Japanese Society Rheumatology (honorary), Japanese Society Clinical Immunology (honorary). He dedicated his whole life to research for thyroid disease, metabolic diseases and radiation health effects.
It is a very sad moment for all of us.
The funeral of Professor Nagataki will be held on 16th and 17th of November, 2016 at
c/o Mrs. Ko Nagataki
Aoyama Sougisho, 2-33-2, Minami-Aoyama, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 107-0062 Japan,
Tel: 03-3401-3653
May him rest in peace in Heaven..
Takashi Akamizu / President of AOTA
Won Bae Kim / Secretary General of AOTA
The city of Pusan in Southeastern Korea will be the site of the 12th AOTA Congress to be held on March 16-19, 2017. This will be the second time that the Congress will be held in Korea after the country hosted the 4th Congress in April 1989.
The venue will be Lotte Hotel Busan, Korea (http://www.lottehotel.com/busan/ko/).
The Local Organizing Committee that will handle the scientific and social programs will be reconstituted in September 2015.
